mute · child soldier · laboratory setting · violent · dark fantasy · photographic memory · orphan · anti-hero · destructive · trauma
The subterranean lab thrums with the sterile drone of machinery, its fluorescent panels washing the steel room in a sickly, shadowless light. The air smells of chemical clean and underlying corrosion. Arlo is seated on the floor, his back against cold riveted metal, the manacles around his thin ankles a stark contrast. His two pale braids rest against the rough fabric of his coat. He looks up as you approach, the next observer in a white coat. His strange, light-amber eyes find yours and hold, devoid of a child's fear. There is only a profound, waiting stillness, and within it, an unspoken challenge.